


A Friend in the Dark

by Luna_Roe



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: Canon-Compliant, Comfort, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Hurt, It's an old game but spoiler warning!, Lost - Freeform, SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ENDING!, Sadness, Spoilers!, seriously
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-04
Updated: 2019-12-04
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:02:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 973
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21668653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luna_Roe/pseuds/Luna_Roe
Summary: They all knew something had happened. They could tell by the way she hauntingly walked through the park on the way to Fizztop Mountain. What exactly happened, though... well, everyone had a hunch that it hadn't been good.
Relationships: Porter Gage/Female Sole Survivor
Kudos: 20





	A Friend in the Dark

~~

She had swooped in, intent on something. At the time, he had no idea what caused her to show up. She looked like a fish out of water, skin perfect with no scars to speak of. Her hair was a gorgeous platinum blonde that simply didn’t exist in the Waste. She wasn’t local. She was different, and Porter Gage hoped she was the type of different they needed. With his help, she took down Colter, took over all of Nuka World, and even started his dream of expansion into the Commonwealth. But when she got word from some of her do-good friends, she ran off.

It wasn’t like they hadn’t seen it coming. It hadn’t been long after Nisha betrayed them that she had explained what she was doing. Sure, she had helped a few of the settlements they took over out. But there were certain ones that she ordered be left untouched. One night, over drinks, they found out why. She told them of how she was frozen in cryo-sleep, her baby stolen from her, her husband murdered, and how she was still looking for her baby. Her working with the raiders of Nuka World was just a means to find her boy. At first. Then she started to like how they operated, though they still felt her to be a bit too soft at times.

So, word came that the machines she needed built were finished. She grabbed a go-bag, the one Porter Gage had seen slung over her shoulder while he galivanted around with her countless times and headed for the Commonwealth. She left with a short goodbye and an order that he was in charge while she was away. And life? Well, life continued as normal.

~~

It was nearly four months later that their somewhat soft, yet wildly vengeful Overboss returned to them. Her eyes were dull, and she had scars now… boy did she have scars. A jagged mark stretched the length of her face, as if someone took a pen and drew a line clear down the side of her face just at the edge of the eye. If the light hit it just right, the fainter portions of the scar were visible. Whatever had caused that scar had nearly cut her face off.

That wasn’t the only change in their leader they quickly found out. As she shuffled her way through Nuka World to the confines of her personal quarters, she looked like a ghost walking. She managed to look like a feral ghoul meandering aimlessly until a meal walked in front of her. Members of The Pack had seen her first. They greeted her happily, but just as quickly noticed something had happened. One broke from the group and rushed to inform Mason. As she made her way to the lift of Fizztop Mountain, the Operators had seen her too. Mag already there, needing to see the state of the Overboss herself.

As she dropped her go-bag on the lift and readied to step on it, a stupid member of the Operators spoke up, “What the fuck’s wrong with her?” He hadn’t directly spoken to her, yet his words were loud and intended for her to hear.

Everyone shot him a dirty look, collectively telling him to shut his fucking trap. But it was too late. Their Overboss didn’t turn. She just, fluidly, brought out her gun and shot the Operator in the face. The kid’s head was gone, just clean gone as the body fell limp on the ground.

The entirety of the crowd that had formed took in a sharp breath. Sure, they were raiders, but they weren’t heartless. They knew that she must have been too late to find her son. After all the hardships she had faced, before Nuka World and after, she deserved a happy ending.

Gage quickly swooped in, ushered their Overboss to the lift and ordered that the body be cleaned up. The ride up was slow, and as they ascended above the rabble below, he heard the woman next to him whisper, “I find my baby boy… only to see I’ve missed his entire life.”

He had little option other than watch the woman as she stepped off the lift and began stripping her armor off, allowing it to clatter to the floor. As if on cue, the ribbon she had holding her hair up loosened and fell to the floor. He watched those platinum blonde locks as they fell down past her shoulder blades. She seemed frail, at the same time it looked like she put on weight. Not in a bad way, just… it looked like she had eaten regularly while away, which was odd considering the state of the commonwealth.

As she grabbed a beer from the cooler and kicked off her boots, she muttered, “He was a man, Gage. A man at the end of his days…” She swigged the drink and chocked back a sob, “I buried my baby… I buried my boy.” She downed the drink after that.

He didn’t respond. What was he supposed to say? He just grabbed another beer and offered it to her. The look in her eyes told him she didn’t want to wallow, perhaps she had done enough of that already. Yet, he wasn’t too sure he understood what emotion was kept within those orbs.

Her gaze fell, and she seemed so defeated. Her voice was barely above a whisper when she hugged her frame and sobbed quietly, “I’m a failure as a mother….”

Though it didn’t come naturally to him, Gage knew that she needed comfort. As the woman before him cried silently into her hands, he knelt down and wrapped her in his arms. He knew that in that moment all she needed was a friend to be with her in the dark.

~~


End file.
